Journal-box for steam-engines



(No Model.) N

W. O. WEBBER.

JOURNAL BOX FOR STEAM ENGINES. No. 449,840. Patented Apr. 7, 1891.

Witnesses Inventor m mums vi'rlne co., mom-gram, vim-Imam, o. c.

By his UNrrED STATES ATENT FFICE.

\VILLIAM O. \VEBBER, OF ERIE, PENNSYLVANIA.

JOURNAL-BOX FOR STEAM-ENGINES.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 449,840, dated April 7, 1891.

Application filed January 16, 1891- Serial No. 378,001- (No model.)

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, WILLIAM O. WEBBER, a citizen of the United States, residing at Erie, in the county of Erie and State of Pennsylvania, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Journal-Boxes forSteam- Engines; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

This invention relates to the construction of steam-engines; and it consists in certain improvements in thejournalboxes of the main shaft of the same, as will be herein fully set forth and explained, and pointed out in the claims.

My device is illustrated in the accompanying drawings, as follows:

Figure 1 is a top View showing a fragment of the frame or bed of a steam-engine with the lower half of one of my improved journal-boxes formed thereon. Fig. 2 is a vertical sectionalview taken on the line a: a; in Fig. 1.

A marks the engine frame or bed; B, the lower part of the j ournal-box, which isformed integral with the frame; 13, the upper part of the journal-box, which is held in place by screws 1), which tap into holes I); B E the gib or intermediate part of the box; 0, the screw by which the gib is held against the shaft, and D the shaft-opening.

My invention relates particularly to the gib B B and the manner in which it is kept in place. IIeretofore the gib or gibs of such journal-boxes have been rectangular in general outline and have been held against the shaft by two set-screws or by a wedge-piece which was actuated by a screw. There the gibs are held against the shaft by two setscrews, the adjustment of the screws is apt to not be alike and the gib soon wears tapering,

and where the gib is moved by a wedge the construction is expensive, and the gib is liable to move longitudinally of the shaft and get out of place.

What I seek to accomplish is to so form the gib and its seat that it cannot have longitudinal action beyond a slight and unimportant degree incident to looseness in its seat, and so that it can be moved against the shaft and held there in true paralielism by a single setscrew, and that it can be put in and removed from place easily, while the shaft is in position, and that it may be of the cheapest possible construction.

My improved gib consists of an ordinary bar B and the triangular back extension 13, which parts are cast integral. The recess in the lower half-box B, in which the gib is seated, in addition to having the usual form has a back centrally located recess B in which the back extension B is seated. The back extension I3" is made with its sides parallel for a certain distance, and the side walls of the recess 13 are made to correspond with the form of the back extension of the gib. The lower back corner of the gib is rounded, as at b so the gib can be put in place when the shaft is in place. The adjusting-screw C is made with a rounded point, and this fits in a corresponding socket in the back of the gib.

It will be seen that the gib can only have a forward movement when in place, except such slight movements as it may have by reason of lost motion in its holdings, and that by means of the rounded end of the single adj L sting-screw C the gib is free to move whatever its loose fit in its holdings will permit. The gib, though adjusted by a single screw, must approach the shaft in parallelism, and hence it will wear away without changing its general form or becoming displaced.

The gib and its seat will require no machine-work to finish them,as it is not necessary that the parts shall fit closely, for the gib is held between the shaft and the point of the adj Listing-screw, and as the point of contact of the adj usting-screw is central there is no disposition on the part of the gib to become displaced, and a close enough fit to insure stability can be had without the expenditure of machine-work.

IVhat I claim as new is 1. In the journal-box of a steam-engine shaft, the combination of a gib B having a centrally-located back extension 13*, with its sides parallel throughout part of their length, and a gib-seat having a back extension recess 13 with side walls to correspond with the parallel side walls of the gib-extension B and a single centrally-located adjusting-screw acting upon the back of the gib-extension l3.

2. In the journal-box of a steam-engine,

the combination of agib 13 having a back seated in n rounded socket b in the back of extension the side walls of which are parallel the gib-extension B". IO 2L1} its ex remity and divergent at its base, a In testimony whereof [atlix mysignnture in gib-seat in the lower half-box B, which is propresence of two witnesses.

5 vided with a back extension halving parallel \VILLIAM 0. WE ERER.

walls to correspond with the parallel Walls of \Vitnesses: the gib-extension, and a single adjnsting- JNO. K. HALLOCK,

screw 0, having a rounded point e, which is M. P. HAYES. 

